biloxireb

Crackling firewood, spiced cranberry, and Christmas wreath are great sellers for me. I use Christmas wreath year round and call it Piney Woods outside of the holidays.

My only tip that won't sound like a broken record is accept credit cards! I found a great place that I can phone in a credit card number (and keep a knuckle buster copy for myself) and I still make a great profit! My sales at shows have drastically increased after I started taking credit cards at shows. If you want the info, PM me and I can get you the link to their site. I think it's $40 for set-up, $8/month for statement fees, and only 3.85% per transaction for fees. This is the best I've found in the three years that I've been looking credit card processing - it's even better than the Pal's rates when you bust out and do the math (I had my hub do it for me - I suck at math!). Best of all if you have a cell phone signal (or just on of those knuckle buster machines - you can take a chance and call it in later if you want) - you can take a credit card and none of those stupid terminals to buy!

Just my 2 cents...

Life & Light!

Tish

I use Squareup.com. No set up fees, no monthly fees, and no this % for this but this much for that. It is a flat 2.5% and I get my money the next business day! The swipe takes a little getting used to but I can email or text receipts (they get it immediatley). Also, I can check my CC sales at anypoint! Don't need electricity, because I use my smart phone. I have barely used any data for it and so far it works anywhere my cell phone does! I love this. When you are starting up, you need to keep costs as low as possible. I pay nothing if I don't use it too!

Agreed Kitn. Just had our second show and used Iwantitgreen's advice and added some color to the table with the BB items. Second show was one day (6 hrs) and $/hr was actually better than the first two day show. We are definitley working to streamline everything. That is the biggest learning curve!

The bags on the back wall are aroma ornies. We did decide that we need to have a sign atop the rack that said "Room Fresheners". Yes some were, at times we practically had to beg them. We were in a corner booth so it was difficult to create the third side to our booth. It is a good idea to have another color on the table where our natural bath salts and scrubs were. It was kind of a last minute thing as we were going to put a christmas cloth there but didn't like the way it looked.

I am posting a pic or two of our first craft show. We were successful but I welcome any suggestions for future events!

Thanks,

Tina

Thanks for your ideas! I cut back on the amount of baking soda. We were adding 4 cups salt to 1 cup baking soda. Went to 2 tablespoons. The baking soda is a good water softner! Also determined that blending the salts with a hand mixer is not as helpful as one might think! It broke the salts down till they were mush! Got my first show this weekend! Wish me luck!

Thanks,

Tina

Every basic recipe I find online included, Epsom, EO, Baking Soda, and coloring, but my batches are hard as a rock the next day! What am I doing wrong? I have a show next weekend so I can't order anything online. Should I not use the baking soda? Also, I live in the South so is it possible that the humidity is causing this (and it's very low right now)?

I should also note that I am trying to keep it all natural.

I appreciate any help you can give!

Thanks,

Tina